SusieRose, I feel the same way. I am sure folks with REAL flowers are a bit horrified by silk ones, especially in the yard. But its the only way I can have flowers! Real ones hate me so much, I swear they kill themselves BEFORE I can kill them. Plus with our extreme summer heat and my health issues, I just can't deal with properly trying to have beautiful flowers. One thing I really love about the silk ones is how easy I can change out my tipsy pots or porch arrangements for different holidays and "decorate".

I will never forget, many years ago, a dear friend visiting from CO. She had beautiful gardens! When she saw all my phony flowers, she started pointing and laughing loudly.
I was crushed, I thought my front area was decorated nicely.
Gosh was I hurt. Now I'm a lot older and just don't care what others think, if it makes me happy, then that's what matters. I am very envious of folks who have real flowers, and live in areas where they grow so easily. Summer in Phx is a lot like Hell. Little rain and very little humidity, and endless blazing sun well over 300 days a year. Thank goodness for silk flowers!!!

Wish me luck by the way, my darling DIL is buying me a hibiscus and SHE is planting it for me. She has a very green thumb, LOL. Maybe since its a BUSH that flowers, I won't kill it. I've long wanted one.

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I feel the way you feel when you have toilet paper stuck to your shoe in public. I had no idea that silk was a private joke amongst green-thumbers. I dont have them in my flower bed but I do have them on the porch.

I am also a bit gardening challenged. I overfeed my husband, myself, my dogs, and my plants.

But now I might have to give potted plants a more serious try. I do ferns quite well. I'm trying succulents that Lindasewandsew sent me from CA (they look home sick). But flowers up on that door in that basket is going to be a challenge.

I may just have to check into becoming a North Texas Master Gardener if everything goes well. ROFLOL susie

I use silk flowers where I need them. I hsve a planter by the front door and it always has silk flowers in it. I have tried live ones but if they need to be watered on a regular basis, I might forget and my hubby would never remember. I love real flowers but only when mother nature can do the watering.

I use silk flowers all the time --- AND --- have gotten compliments on the beautiful flowers I grow ! ROFL !!!
( I HAVE to use silk - I can barely grow weeds , much less pretty flowers ! ) I won't give up my falsies !!!

Hey, I'm a Master Gardener and a professional florist, but I got me some silk daffodils, tulips and crocus on my front porch as I write this!! Heha!! Let those laughing fools laugh! I change my silks to reflect the seasons as well. I think as long as they are used tastefully (meaning to your own taste), then go for it! Besides, you don't have to water those bad boys!!

hehehehe...falsies*blush*I gots falsies,too! They've been on the porch in the hanging spindle planters since after Christmas..I'm gonna run take a pic...I used silk lilacs,at least that's what I think I bought at a yard sale. I have some sort of blue flowers and some small white flowers in the pink mailbox on my front porch,too..
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Here is a link that might be useful: kudzu's album

I've used silk flowers in planter by the door in the winter when frost kills the real ones back. It's either look at ugly dead(you are to leave the dead stuff as it helps keep the whole plant from dying) or stick some pretty arrangements of red & green for xmas,for spring had red poppies & yellow daisies in it & I just took them out to get a new plant as old one looks really dead this year(had it over 20 yrs) begonia ,frost killed it by side of house also so don't know that any is coming back, it is the large leaf kind & gets over a foot tall. When frost gets them it looks like a bunch of dirty rags. Silk looks sooo much better!!! Besides I'm the 1 who has to look at it day after day!! Go for it Susie!! Jan

Susie I really don't care what they think. If I am happy with it then that is what I choose to do. I'm not harming a soul when I place a few "faux" flowers in a deserving spot. Done it befeore and will do it again, as the real ones sometimes is more expensive, and they rarely make it in my care.

As long as they're not too sun faded or dusty, they can look just fabulous. If they make you happy, then go for it! If other people care too much about your silk flowers, they need to get a life LOL ~tenderlee

Whoa, susieroses, you have exquisite taste! Don't "read" those comments on elsewhere!!! Your porch silks are beautiful!

I just think, "to each their own,"...sometimes I do chuckle when I see groups of bright red plastic geraniums sticking up out of the snow! And, I think again, "to each their own." I'm sure some chuckle when they come up my driveway and see a "parking meter" planted at my garage door!..."to each their own!" Jeanne S.

I don't use them but I don't see a problem with others doing so. Except actually I made some Halloween plate flowers and used silk leaves. I love those leaves! I bought some extra thinking I would do something with them but I don't know what. To me silk flowers would be one more thing to take care of in a housekeeping sense. I don't like housekeeping but I do love gardening. And here in NH I can neglect my flowers and they won't die cuz we usually get the right amount of rain.
Susie, I think your flower and feather arrangement is lovely.
kathy

jeanne- Be careful!!! I heard that when those parking meters expire you can get a ticket!!! LOLOLOL

Oh no! I've got to shut down. I am supposed to go to traffic court today and plead "pathetic". I got caught with an expired inspection sticker. I was totally unaware! I thought he was stopping me for talking on the cell phone while eating a cheese burger and filin my nails. I've got to 'speed' over there to Pay Up!!!
susie

I did a lot of quite nice silk arrangements for our church--when no one else was putting flowers in.
Now some are saying that they prefer live flowers
but when it is my turn I still use the silks and
they go up and touch to see if they are real! LOLOL
With the others---To each his own!
Use them where ever the need occurs.

I used to hate them, now I really like them. Especially the ones that look very real - and in season.

But I also really like the color and interest they add to a house all winter when it's so dreary around here. I just think that someone cheerful lives there.

I'll be looking for some at the thrift to stick out and fool everyone.

I love silk flowers and I have a lot of them! If they were no longer being used then Michaels would go out of business!(-:

Susie, Susie ... Anyone who snickers at that arrangement needs to be kicked in the ankle!!!
And Kudzu,the mailbox & hannging buckets are just right.I wouldnt have known the bucket planting were silk unless you had told it.
How can you water plants in stuff like that w/o water & dirt coming down everywhere and dripping down your door and porch walls and onto the floor,unless you water a little bit 9x a day and are verrry varry careful. And who wants to spend time like that?!?
I'm a master gardener too, but the new silks look so nice, not like the neon ones my mom had 30 years ago.. sorry mom !
I've made silk arrangements for her porch, cos a plant starts dying as soon as she looks at it! The woman can knit & craft like crazy, but plants go to her yard to die..and it's not pretty !!!
I agree w/ tenderlee , as long as they're not faded out I think what makes you happy & keeps color in your life is great.

Why stop at silk flowers? I have fake grass, succulents and cacti! My apartment is in TOTAL shade. I couldn't have live plants and flowers in here unless I had the place lit up with grow lamps. People tend to touch them to see if they are real.

I haven't used fake plants outside because I'd have to wash them. lol! Jeannespines, I chuckle too when I see bright flowers in hanging pots on the porch with icicles hanging from them or sticking out of a foot of snow.

I remember Oprah thinking silk flowers were so horrible. You would have thought they were made from babies' skin the way she carried on about them. I never saw anything wrong with them as long as they are tasteful or funky.

why poeple would make fun of silk flowers i do not know. i love them! i have found some of the most beautiful arrangments, at times you cant even tell that their not real. i use them somewhat through out the house, but at the same time i like to change it up and go out and buy some real flowers for the kitchen maybe or my flower beds. its always calming to garden, but then it can also be frustrating, i hate it when i have alive plant in the house that dies on me. i always feel terrible. so i say nothing is wrong with silk flowers. i think they are very easy to deal with and easy to change them out if you need something alittle different, or its a new season. they have great designs, and can accent your home very nicely. people have loved them in mine, causing them to go out and get their own.

Susie,

Turn your ears the other way whenever you directly or overhear someone say anything derrogatory about silks! I always think abotu the Montgomery Gentry song "what do you think about that?" whenever I hear others want to complain. spring through early winter I use real flowers (periennials) but in the winter I stick a whole lotta red poinsettia flowers out in my front terra cotta pots and string twinkly lights through them. They were especially cool when it DID snow.
OK, so here's something~~ when I was a teen I worked at a florist. One of my duties was to water all the plants in the store. Well, I accidentally "watered" a silk plant!OOPS! Live and learn. Thats the great thing about silks--no watering unless you take and hose them off to get dust and dirt off of them. You got to not worry about what other people THINK of your SECRETLY. Who cares what THEY think. It gives you the luxury of having more time to tend to other things that matter. I use to have real plants IN the house when I was younger but I killed those by neglect. So, all the plants I have indoor now ARE silks.
You stand in pride with your head held high. Your rooster/pheasant arrangemetn is AWESOME.
Love, Jules

I have a better perspective now. I added some real plants around the front door area where the silks are and planted a lot of new things in the front flower beds. It's a mix that makes me more content.

Jules, That Gentry song is funny, LOL. I developed a hunger to learn more about gardening and I'm always surprised to find out little secret attitudes of different groups of folks. I dont mind being different or snickered at a little. I needed to really understand how ya'll felt about the silks.

Hey Luna, I am seriously looking at fake grass now to go around my miniature garden houses. I will cut places in it to plant bushes which will be cut to look like trees.

Thanks everyone for your input and support.

just found the best website! they have gorgeous arrangements! they are all at different prices ranges and are afforadable. some may be alittle pricey but for sure worth checking out. they have a big variety of silk florals, and look so real! no one should be making fun of these ones!

Here is a link that might be useful: silk arrangements

You ladies are right on! Silk Flowers are absolutely wonderful, inside or outside, and if they are tastefully done, they can make the entire front of your home. Don't stop using them no matter what anybody says! It's a hoot when people come up and touch them to see if they are real! You Go Girl!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Silk Flowers and arrangements inside and out!

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Susie I agree with everone else on the forum. If a peson likes silk flowers and they are done up tastefully then I don't see any reason to pay attention to what others say. It is your yard and you are the one who gets to say what is or is not displayed in your yard. I love silk flowers and plants and I use them inside and out. I love to garden but some places get too hot in AZ so i just use silk flowers or plants there.I also change the flowers to reflect the seasons or holidays.
I have a friend who does nothing but silk flowers and her yard looks really nice. People go up and feel the flowers because they look so real.
I think the little rooster and the feathers in your arrangement make it very personal and unique. Very, very nice!!!Keep it up it reflects you!

I am using silk flowers as my posted my image, I love this kind of silk flowers and i was purchase this kind of flowers form the Qualitysilkplants.com you may also buy here.